literated

Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks Has there ever been a better time to read bell hooks? Sure, it’s never been a bad time to read bell hooks, but you get what I mean. Even though some of her books were written decades ago, bell hooks is someone who has remained relevant even today. Ain’t I a Woman is definitely one of those books. In Ain’t I a Woman, hooks essentially discusses the struggles of...

Bertrand Russell The Impact of Science on Society One of the things we love doing here on Ground Control is share some of our favorite books with our readers. We review everything we think looks interesting, even when they turned out to be less-than-stellar (hey, when a publisher sends us a book we ask for, we review it, no matter what). Other times, it’s an absolute joy to write these reviews and tell our audience about these great...

Jerusalem by Alan Moore I should start this review by admitting that I am an Alan Moore fan and a very big one at that. So much so that I consider Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell required reading for anyone who cares about words on paper. The man has reached a certain status in my mind where, even though I don’t consider him infallible (Promethea didn’t exactly float my boat), I will go the extra mile and really...

Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night by Jason Zinoman If you’re a fan of comedy you’re going to have to answer the following question at some point: are you a Leno or Letterman person. I’ve always been a Letterman guy, even when I was unaware of the whole Late Night battle. In high school, we just didn’t talk about the Leno segments in class (and no, we weren’t paying attention to the teacher), but focused mostly on what Letterman...

The Body Builders: Inside the Science of the Engineered Human by Adam Piore One of the greatest things science can offer us is the ability to better ourselves: improve where possible, correct mistakes, fix what might be broken. That work is certainly going on right now and Adam Piore’s Body Builders presents itself as a look behind all the science that goes behind engineered humans. It’s right there in the title. The problem is that that isn’t really the case,...

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee As a scientist, it’s hard for me to back up and realize that the general public’s understanding of DNA and genes in general is incomplete and vague. Lucky for us we have people like Siddhartha Mukherjee and his book The Gene which is truly one of the great science books aimed at the general public. An old mentor of mine once said that even as we advance in our career as scientists...

Moonglow by Michael Chabon I know we run a column here on Ground Control called I Wanna Be Literated but the fact is we’re not literary guys here on the site. We know what we like, but we’re not going to argue for or against an Oxford comma, for example. One thing is clear, though: this reviewer definitely has a soft spot for Michael Chabon. I first heard about Chabon on the Simpsons (again, we are NOT literary guys) and...

Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong No matter how much you think you know about Seinfeld, there’s always more to uncover. I considered myself a fan of the show ever since I would watch the live broadcast back in high school. But it’s only several years later when the show was being released on DVD in these nifty box sets that I decided to actually commit and rewatch the entire series. By then Seinfeld...

The Weirdo Years by R. Crumb: 1981-’93 Robert Crumb is THE man in indie comics. Having been around for so long and having put out material of such high quality, and having been such an influence on not just other artists, but other writers and on pop culture in general, it’s imperative that everyone even remotely interested in art (any art) should check out R. Crumb’s work. But where to start? Like I said, R. Crumb has such a...

Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay by Ben Katchor This book is nice and simple, and maybe our review of it should be the same. Comics get a bad rap for being only about superheroes so their potential for telling common everyday stories is often ignored or overlooked. As a medium they can tell stories as subtle and personal as any other art form, and Cheap Novelties is as good of an example as any. Knowing nothing about Ben...